STUART. Charles II. 1660-1685. Bimetallic Brass and CU Token (29mm, 9.88 g, 1h). Tower (London) mint. Struck circa 1664/5(?). * CAR · II · D · G · M · B · FR · ET · HI · REX,
Sovereign of the Seas under sail left / * SOLI DEO GLORIA, archangel Michael slaying the Dragon. Peck 499; Woolf,
Sovereign p. 13-4. Brown surfaces. VF. Rare.
This interesting token was used to control access to the Touching Ceremony, so that only those authorized would receive a gold touch piece. Peck hypothesizes that this type began to be used around when the dedicated gold touch pieces were struck, in 1664/5. The bimetallic flan may have been intended to make counterfeiting more difficult, or else to distinguish tokens distributed for different ceremonies.